Katie Thurston, who led Season 17 of “The Bachelorette” in 2021, has been diagnosed with breast cancer, she announced on Instagram Feb. 15.

“Life update: I have breast cancer,” Thurston, 34, wrote in her caption Saturday, before sharing that her Valentine’s Day was spent handling logistics regarding insurance, appointments and her treatment, “which will include chemo,” she said.

“I experienced a range of emotions over the past two weeks. Despair. Anger. Sadness. Denial. And then strength. Purposeful. Ready. I cried a lot. I tried to even make a video instead of this post and couldn’t,” Thurston said.

Reflecting on why she decided to go public with her diagnosis, she said reading other young women’s experiences with breast cancer “helped.”

“So I intend to be the same for others. This is day one of sharing and is going to be a long one. This first step of acceptance of my reality was the hardest. But I am ready to fight this,” she said.

She then thanked her fiancé, comedian Jeff Arcuri, writing, “I don’t know how I’d do this without you. The selfless love that you smother me in is beyond anything I imagined I’d be blessed with. I love you to the fullest in this lifetime and the next.”

On her Instagram story, Thurston accepted questions from followers and answered them throughout the day on Saturday.

In the series of posts, she shared that she is “waiting on learning what stage” of breast cancer she has and that the process of getting diagnosed started with discovering a small lump in her breast, which she said she initially chalked up to premenstrual syndrome or exercise.

“Went to the doc thinking it was going to be nothing. I was wrong,” she said on her story.

Thurston announced her engagement to Arcuri in September 2024. She was previously engaged to Blake Moynes, who proposed to her in the Season 17 finale of “The Bachelorette,” and dated John Hersey, another contestant from her season of the reality dating show.